Contents

Early Life

Maximus, an Inhuman, was the second son of two of Attilan's top geneticists, Agon, the head of the ruling Council of Geneticists, and Rynda, director of the Prenatal Care Center. Subjected to the DNA-altering Terrigen Mist when he was an infant, Maximus peculiarly showed no outward sign of any mutagenic change. As he matured, he hid his developing psionic powers from the community but was less successful at disguising his antisocial tendencies. When he was about sixteen, his elder brother Black Bolt was released from the protective chamber in which he had been confined since birth due to the destructive nature of his Terrigen mutation. One of Maximus' first ploys was an unsuccessful attempt to force his brother to unleash his highly destructive vocal powers in order to have him reincarcerated. A month later, Black Bolt witnessed Maximus making a treacherous pact with an emissary of the Kree, the alien race responsible for genetically accelerating the Inhumans eons before. In an attempt to stop the fleeing emissary so that he could be questioned by the ruling council, Black Bolt used his forbidden power of the quasi-sonic scream and blasted the alien ship out of the sky. When the ship crashed to earth, it landed on the parliament building, killing several key members of the Genetics Council, including the boys' parents. The reverberations of Black Bolt's voice also affected Maximus, who was standing nearby, addling his sanity and suppressing his nascent mental powers. When Black Bolt assumed the throne shortly thereafter, Maximus vowed to oppose his brother and eventually usurp his rule.[2]

Usurping the Throne

Maximus staged his first successful coup a few years later. By performing an illegal experiment on the Alpha Primitives, the subhuman worker clones that once served the Inhumans, Maximus created the Trikon, three bodiless energy beings of great destructive power. While the Trikon wreaked havoc in Attilan, Maximus was able to drive the Royal Family of the Inhumans out of the city in search of the amnesiac Medusa.[3] In the several year interval before Black Bolt and his cousins located her in America, Maximus ruled Attilan in Black Bolt's stead. Feeling secure in his position, Maximus bade his servant, the Seeker, to locate the Royal Family and bring them back to Attilan.

Immediately upon doing so, Black Bolt seized the crown back, to Maximus' dismay. Maximus, hoping to win back the public's affection, activated the Atmo-Gun device he had been working on, a machine he believed would kill the human race and leave all other living beings intact[3]. Maximus miscalculated, however, and the device had no effect. Out of spite, Maximus used the device to erect a "Negative Barrier", a dark force sphere around Attilan, imprisoning the entire race inside[4]. For many months the Inhumans tried to find away to get through the barrier. [5] Maximus built the Water-Circulation Apparatus for Triton that allowed him to survive outside of water, which annoyed Gorgon because Maximus should be building a device to free them. [6][7][8] Black Bolt eventually liberated his people by using his quasi-sonic voice to destroy the barrier, at the price of devastating Attilan's ancient architecture.[9]

Maximus & Luna

The Evil Inhumans

Maximus then allied himself with six Inhuman criminals, sentenced for their treachery and subversive acts. Freeing Falcona, Aireo, Stallior, Nebulo, Leonus, and Timberius from their place of imprisonment with the Hulk's aid, Maximus then tricked the Hulk into breaching the protective barrier guarding a forbidden chemical substance created by the Inhuman scientist Romnar centuries previous. This substance had certain highly unstable energy absorbing capacities and Maximus intended to use it to usurp the throne again. Black Bolt overpowered him before he could do so.[10]

Maximus succeeded in bringing about his second coup some months later. Drugging the Royal Family with will-deadening "hypno-potions," Maximus wrested the crown from Black Bolt and had the Royal Family imprisoned.[11]Before he could activate his Hypno-Gun, which he believed would make all mankind surrender to his will, the Royal Family escaped and subdued him. Maximus' first coup had lasted several years; his second one several days.[12]

Escaping Attilan with his band of renegades in a rocket, Maximus landed in the South American country of Costa Salvador, and attempted to build a will-deadening device similar to his Hypno-Gun.[13] His plans were opposed by the Hulk and the United States Army. [14] However, and he and his allies were forced to flee again.[15]

The Silver Surfer finds himself attacked by the evil Inhumans led by Maximus, who succeeded in making the Surfer believe that the Inhumans as a whole are responsible for the attack.[16]

Returning to Attilan, Maximus was welcomed back by his brother Black Bolt who preferred Maximus to be somewhere he could be watched. Black Bolt detected that Maximus' psionic powers, suppressed since he was an adolescent, were beginning to return.[17] Offering no explanation, Black Bolt had Maximus placed in a suspended animation capsule, inside which he could not use his powers.[18] Black Bolt's cousin Gorgon, however, objected to Black Bolt's inhumane treatment of Maximus and freed him. Maximus immediately used his mental powers to subjugate the minds of the Inhuman populace and to give his brother Black Bolt amnesia.[19] Maximus then restored the dark force barrier around Attilan and began negotiations with the alien Kree to sell certain Inhumans to the Kree to be used as soldiers.[20] Eventually Black Bolt's memory returned, and alongside the Avenger, he returned to Attilan and once again destroyed the barrier.[21] The Avengers drove the Kree agent away before he could accomplish his mission and Black Bolt liberated the enslaved Inhumans. Maximus' third takeover of Attilan lasted several weeks.[22]

With his mental powers traumatically submerged, Maximus escaped strict punishment for his treachery by feigning insanity.[23] He then began work on his next project to usurp the throne, the construction of the android Omega, whose power source was supposedly the collective guilt evinced by the Inhuman populace over their treatment of the subhuman Alpha Primitives.[24][25] The Fantastic Four helped the Royal Family thwart the construct, and the damage it caused was slight. Maximus staged his fourth successful coup a short time later when the Royal Family had briefly left Attilan on business.Taking Crystal and her husband Quicksilver captive, Maximus forced Black Bolt to give him the crown in order to spare their lives. Black Bolt did so, and allowed himself to be placed in captivity.[26][27]

Maximus had re-established contact with the Kree and had negotiated a deal where the Kree would take all of the Inhumans with extraordinary abilities.[28] This would leave him the other half of the population to rule.[29]Triton and Karnak managed to rescue most of Maximus' captives and outwit the Kree agent Shatterstar.[30] Unaware of the victory, Black Bolt let loose with his quasi-sonic scream in agony, once again leveling the city.[31] Angered by what had happened, Black Bolt struck Maximus for the first time and had him imprisoned. [32][33]

Maximus then allied himself with the Enclave, a band of human scientists who managed to capture Medusa. The Enclave wanted to conquer Attilan and dispatched an aerial strike force. When the Enclave threatened to execute Medusa, however, Maximus turned on them out of unrequited passion for his brother's betrothed. A weapon Maximus was manning overloaded, leaving Maximus in a death-like coma. Black Bolt had his brother's body placed in a special crypt, and when Attilan was transported from the earth to the moon, Maximus accompanied it. On the moon, Maximus' mind made contact with an alien power crystal located there, and it reawakened his dormant mental powers. When Black Bolt next came to pay his respects to his brother, Maximus was able to use his power to affect a transfer of consciousness between them. For several months Maximus ruled Attilan in Black Bolt's body as Black Bolt lay imprisoned in a tube. Reestablishing contact with the Enclave, Maximus helped them implement meteoroid launchers with which they intended to bombard Earth. With the aid of the Avengers, Maximus' switch was discovered, and the Enclave's schemes were foiled. Maximus was forced to return to his rightful body and was once again placed in solitary confinement.[34]

Silent War

With an upcoming war between the United States government and the Inhumans, Maximus again ploted his revenge, taunting Black Bolt from his prison and trying to sway a distressed Medusa on his side.[35] He in fact managed to convince Medusa to try to have Luna help "cure" him,[36] only for Luna to realize too late that the "cure" instead allowed Maximus to gain control over all the other Inhumans.[37][38] After the enhanced Marines managed to destroy Attilan, Maximus usurped the throne of the Inhumans from Black Bolt, taking Medusa as his queen, and announcing a new plan to conquer Earth.[39]

Secret Invasion

During Secret Invasion, Maximus killed the Skrull posing as Ahura. He then aided the Inhumans in fighting the Skrulls.[40] In their subsequent takeover of the Kree empire, Maximus' inventions (previously locked away in the Chamber of Devices) were instrumental in the Inhumans' victory.[41] During this period, though still insane, Maximus appeared to be more stable, especially when he was able to devote his energy and attention to his inventions, chief among them trying to adapt the Terrigen Mist to affect the Kree and encourage their evolution, though he was forced to focus on the war effort as the fight against Vulcan grew more difficult.[42] After Black Bolt's death and Medusa's ascension to the throne (now ruling both the Shi'ar and Kree empires), Maximus appeared to have turned against the Inhumans again, when it was discovered that he had created cybernetic beings disguised as Kree which had attacked Crystal and Ronan.[43] However, when Crystal, Ronan, and Gorgon gathered a group to go after Maximus, he refused to fight them with his full abilities and it was revealed that he was acting on Medusa's orders, creating threats against the Kree that the Inhumans could then defeat so they would appear both powerful and dedicated to the protection of their subjects.[44]

War of Kings

As of War of Kings, Black Bolt has retaken the throne of the Inhumans. Maximus is still free and serves as Black Bolt's science advisor, devising war machines for the Kree to use against their adversaries, the Shi'ar.[45][46][47][48][49]

After Black Bolt's vanishing, during a time when the ruling of the various empires is up for dispute, Maximus is seen under the close supervision of Gorgon. His desired for something, anything to rule, are swiftly dismissed.[50]

Realm of Kings

As the Inhumans have solidified their position as the new rulers of the Kree people.[51] Crystal and Ronan discover the Alpha Primitives begin to act up and Kree scientists are behind their growing madness and aggression.[52] It is revealed Maximus is behind it all, Crystal, Gorgon, and Ronan attempt to confront him and are convinced he has in fact returned to his old ways.[53] It is revealed, however, that he was acting under the orders of Medusa, who declared Maximus under her protection.[54] Her growing coldness is baffling to Gorgon and Crystal as she explains that everything she ordered Maximus to do was intended to solidify the Inhumans position as rulers of the Kree in showing that they were needed when faced with threats.[55]

Infinity

Before Thanos' invasion on Earth, Maximus helped Black Bolt build a secret bomb which contained the Terrigen Mists.[56][57][58]Once detonated, the bomb spread the Terrigen Mists upon the entire face of Earth, awakening the latent powers of millions of Inhuman descendants.[59]

When Black Bolt was kidnapped by Thanos' Black Order, Maximus helped the Illuminati find him.[60] Black Bolt was found in Wakanda, where Thanos' lieutenant Supergiant was planning to mind-control him into activating the Illuminati's hidden arsenal of anti-matter bombs.[61] Once the Illuminati were defeated by a mind-controlled Black Bolt, Maximus appeared and taunted Supergiant, who was looking for the trigger of the bombs Maximus had found. Maximus triggered the bombs, but used Lockjaw to transport them along with Supergiant to a distant abandoned planet.[62]

Black Bolt was liberated, and left the scene along with Maximus and Lockjaw. In the Himalayas, Black Bolt hid the Terrigen Codex, and made Maximus understand his survival and that of his brother were to be kept a secret. Maximus also discovered that Black Bolt was going to activate the Terrigen Bomb anyways for a new age for the Inhumans to begin.[63]

The Cabal

Maximus joined Namor's Cabal.[64] He joins in order to destroy a colliding Earth during an Incursion, as the Illuminati were willing to let both universes die.[65]

Time Runs Out

Eight months after the formation of the Cabal, the Cabal had found some degree of legitimacy on Earth. The world stood by and allowed the Cabal to raze Wakanda, and claim the ruins as their base of operations. The Cabal continued to protect the universe by destroying colliding Earths, but Namor had grown weary and disgusted with the Cabal's habit of engaging in wholesale slaughter of the colliding Earth's population, as opposed to simply planting the bomb and leaving.[66]

Namor, now willing to turn himself in for his crimes, devised a plan with the Illuminati to destroy the Cabal. A new Incursion was on the horizon, one in which the incursive world had been ravaged by the Sidera Maris. Namor would lead the Cabal to said world, activate the anti-matter injector without their knowledge, and leave them to die with said Earth, preventing them from escaping with the use of an A.I.M. platform capable of creating an impenetrable barrier between the two colliding Earths. As the Cabal engaged the Sidera Maris in combat, Namor set his plan in motion. However, he was betrayed by Black Panther and Black Bolt, who pushed him off the platform into the soon-to-be-destroyed Earth.[67]

As the Cabal approached the fallen Namor, who lied about his intentions, they discovered an unusual event was occuring. The Earth they were in was, in addition, in an Incursion with another universe at the same time. Unable to return to Earth-616, the Cabal made their way to the second Incursion point, and escaped from the doomed planet into the third universe, the Ultimate Universe.[68]

Mind Control: Maximus possesses the ability to override the thought processes of other brains around him, although the potency of this power varies greatly over time. At its peak, Maximus can overtake the minds of others. While he is capable of numbing the minds of as many people as there are within a 20-foot radius of him, he can only direct one sort of behavior at a time. He can impose a certain behavior on either a single individual or as many people as are in his radius. Maximus is especially good at controlling the actions of the limitedly intelligent Alpha Primitives worker class. Maximus' power can even cause short-term amnesia if he overpowers a mind with sufficient force. He can blank people's minds or control their actions for as long as he so concentrates: they revert to normal as soon as he stops. [69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76]

Abilities

Genius-Level Intellect: Maximus is an inventor of genius level intellect. Despite his mild insanity, he retains an excellent theoretical and practical knowledge of mechanics, physics, biology. He is particularly gifted at fashioning elaborate machines out of common, simple materials.[69][70][71][72][73]

Strength level

Equipment

His technology achievements, have included;

Echo-Technology[78]: Technology which utilizes power from vibranium capacitors that store whispers of Black Bolt. It has included; Echo-Skeleton Armour and Echo-Weapons (sonic-rifles and sonic-charges).

The Echopacitor[78]: A throne and helmet-like device which utilizes Black Bolt's voice to power both Attilan as a spaceship and a powerful sonic-canon.

The Atmo-Gun: A machine intended to kill the human race but leave all other living beings intact. However the machine was used to erect a "negative zone" (not to be confused with the anti-matter dimension of the same name), a dark-force-sphere around Attilan.

Hypno-Gun: A device which Maximus believed would make all mankind surrender to his will.